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The Devils haven’t fixed all their follies. This remarkable one suggests a vital problem.

They’ve dropped nine straight second games of back-to-back pairs, and last night’s 3-2 shootout loss to the Islanders at Nassau Coliseum was their first point of that sorry streak.

“Yikes,” Jamie Langenbrunner said after learning of the disquieting stat.

The obvious concern is that the contrast of their 9-3 record in opening games and 3-8-1 record in the second games of consecutive-night pairs suggests a lack of conditioning, or the overuse of key players.

“That can be questioned,” one Devil said. “If you have a lot of guys playing a lot of key minutes, in back-to-back games it could show.”

And show and show. Nine straight heads-tails calls is a 512-1 shot.

“Put it like that, it’s a problem,” Colin White said. “But I’m sure that around the league, back-to-back is hard for a lot of teams.”

The Devils last won a second game of back-to-backs Nov. 12 in Washington, taking them to 3-0 on the season in second games. They’ve gone 0-8-1 since, and have four more paired sets left in their schedule.

They haven’t even been any good in second games during 2006. They’ve lost all four (0-3-1) of this calendar year’s second games, out of six (15-5-1) total losses.

“You don’t have to read too much into it. There are a lot of games being played and it’s a tough season for everybody,” Martin Brodeur said.

“It’s a reason why we’re not on top. We can’t get back-to-back games together.”

Last night, even a shootout couldn’t help them; they fell to 7-3 this season in the penalty-shot contest.

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GM/coach Lou Lamoriello admitted yesterday what The Post reported Tuesday: Patrik Elias is very unlikely to face the Rangers tomorrow at the Meadowlands, and might not play until March 10. Elias is out with a suspicious rib/back injury sustained while playing for the Czech Republic in the Olympics. Lamoriello would not offer optimism that Elias would play at Nassau Coliseum on Tuesday, with the Devils next game a week from tonight in Washington.

Richard Matvichuk sat out with a stomach virus, putting Sean Brown in the lineup for the first time since Feb. 9 in Boston, when he did not see a shift. He did play last night for the first time since Jan. 9, idled for 17 straight and 20 of 21.